Posted By DP Opinion On April 18, 2013 @ 12:45 pm In What They Are Saying ... | 3 Comments

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[media-credit name=”Yuri Gripas, Reuters” align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] President Barack Obama speaks alongside Vice President Joe Biden and family members of Newtown victims on legislation to reduce gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday.

Here are several excerpts from editorials published around the nation in response to the defeat of gun legislation Wednesday in the U.S. Senate.

Avoiding rebuke from NRA
A cowardly minority of senators blocked a gun background-check proposal on Wednesday, in one vote betraying both the will of the American people and the charge voters gave them to work in their interest. But at least those senators avoided a rebuke from the National Rifle Association.— The Washington Post

What now on gun control?
As is so often the case, Wednesday’s votes neither reflected the will of most Americans — who, in poll after poll, favor measures to control the proliferation of guns — nor even most members of the Senate, 54 of whom voted for the proposal to widen background checks. Although that represents a majority, nothing of consequence clears the Senate these days without a supermajority of 60 votes, the number needed to overcome a filibuster.— Los Angeles Times

A betrayal of Newtown victims
In the end, the slaughter of 20 children and their six brave caretakers in Newtown, Conn., did nothing: nothing to weaken the stranglehold the gun industry has on Congress or to strengthen our shoddy patchwork of laws to protect the innocent.

It’s a dark day for America.

— San Jose Mercury News

Shame, indeed, on the Senate
On Wednesday, after the Senate rebuffed the background checks measure but before it had gone on to reject bans on assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines, two women were escorted from the gallery for causing a disturbance. They were Patricia Maisch, who survived a mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., and Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot at Virginia Tech.

“Shame on you!” they shouted. Shame, indeed.

— Chicago Tribune

No more important issue
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who deserves praise for bringing the background-check gun legislation to the Senate, had this to say when it was defeated Wednesday, in a vote that fell six short of the 60 needed: “The Senate has spoken on the subject, and it’s time to move on. We have a lot of other very important issues to deal with … .”

Oh, no, it isn’t time to move on. And no, we don’t have anything more important than keeping this issue alive.